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Louise Beavers (March 8 1902 - October 26 1962)
was a prolific African-American film actress.
Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s
to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid,
servant, or slave. She was a native of Cincinnati,
Ohio.

Among the many films she appeared in were Freaks
(1932), General Spanky (1936), and Holiday Inn
(film)|Holiday Inn (1942). Beavers' most famous
and noted role was her portrayal of Delilah
Johnson, the housekeeper/cook whose employer
transformers her into an Aunt Jemima-like
celebrity in the 1934 film Imitation of Life. One
of the film's main conflicts was that between
Delilah and her light-skinned daughter Peola
(played by Fredi Washington), who wanted to
passing|pass for Caucasian|white. Imitation of
Life was the first time in United States|American
cinema history that a black woman's problems were
given major emotional weight in a major Hollywood
motion picture.

The vast majority of Beavers' other film roles,
however, were not as prestigious. Along with
Hattie McDaniel, she became the on-screen
personification of the "mammy" stereotype: a
large, matronly black woman with a quick temper, a
large laugh, and a subservient manner. Beavers'
employers had her overeat so that she could
maintain her "mammy"-like figure. Although Beavers
did not approve of how her characters were
scripted, she nonetheless continued appearing in
films, because, as her contemporary McDaniel once
stated, "it's better to play a maid than be a
maid."
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/filmnotes/bamboozl
ed.html.

Beavers was one of four actresses (including
McDaniel, Ethel Waters, and Amanda Randolph) to
portray housekeeper Beulah on the Beulah
(show)|Beulah television show. That show was the
first television sitcom to star an African
American, even though the role was a somewhat
subservient one.

Louise Beavers died of a myocardial
infarction|heart attack in Hollywood, California
on October 26 1962 at the age of 60.

==External links==
*imdb name|id=0064792|name=Louise Beavers